At Looney Bird's, Food Plays Second Fiddle To Sing-along

Family Dining

May 18, 2000|By Linda Shrieves of The Sentinel Staff

Remember the movie Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? In it, a boy named Charlie wins a chance to go inside an inventor's chocolate factory - and gets sucked into the world of the inventor's creations.

That experience is somewhat akin to what you'll find at Looney Bird's, a kiddie-themed restaurant that is an outlet for a Central Florida inventor's creations.

Back in the 1980s, inventor Aaron Fechter created the animatronic singing bear Billy Bob that was once a fixture in ShowBiz Pizza Places. Now Fechter, who sold his interest in ShowBiz, has come up with a new character, Looney Bird, and a band of sidekicks that look eerily familiar to anyone who has visited a Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor.

And like Chuck E. Cheese, where the emphasis is on games and birthday parties and entertainment - the food isn't the focus at Looney Bird's.

We wandered in on a Friday night recently, ordered our food at the counter and found some seats near the stage. Shortly thereafter, the curtains rose and a three-piece animatronic band began singing. As the two mice and the bear began singing and moving in their characteristic, jerky manner, I said aloud, ``Gee, this seems just like Chuck E. Cheese.''

``Yeah,'' cracked one mother sitting nearby, ``except the characters look like they were pulled out of the garbage can.''

The slightly run-down appearance didn't bother our 2-year-old, Caroline, who was mesmerized by the singing animals. But her eyes lighted up when the crew at Looney Bird's fired up the karaoke machine. The machine, which is Fechter's latest invention, uses an animatronic Looney Bird as the host. Looney Bird asks the kids which songs they want to sing and then lets them take the stage.

Kids wait their turn to use the machine and then sing along to songs that can range from ``Old MacDonald Had a Farm'' to some current MTV numbers for older kids. Parents and other audience members watch them on a big-screen video monitor - and kids can dance along to the music, as Caroline did. Afterward, Looney Bird congratulates each child on the performance and suggests that the parents buy a video of that outstanding performance.

It's schmaltzy but apparently fun for little girls, who seemed eager to try it. However, I didn't see any parents volunteering to buy videotapes. Boys, however, were more interested in the air hockey game and the array of video games lining the small restaurant.

Unlike Chuck E. Cheese, which is chronically overrun by marauding hordes of hyperactive children, the small crowd at Looney Bird's was at least civil - so small kids like mine didn't get trampled as they attempted to play skee ball or pinball or some of the interactive games such as Bonk the Alligator on the Snout - or whatever it's called. For that, we were grateful.

As for the food, it's middling at best. Kids can pick from chicken nuggets, mini-corn dogs or a hot dog - all served with fries. Or the family can split a pizza. But there are some concessions to the adult palate. My husband ordered a plate of ribs ($8.19), which came with fries and a choice of baked beans or macaroni salad. I chose the other grown-up option: Chicken tenderloins ($7.99) served with fries and choice of beans or macaroni salad.

Jack, who's 5 years old, wanted the corn dogs and Caroline opted for her usual chicken nuggets. Sadly, there are no real juices on the menu so we opted for Hi-C drinks.

To satiate our hunger while we waited, we opted for a basket of 10 teriyaki chicken wings ($5.19), and my husband and I ordered a couple of beers. It took about 20 minutes to get our chicken wings, which were quite dry and frankly, not worth the money. The kids' dinners came out shortly thereafter, and I was surprised to see that about half of the french fries were burned.

When our dinner food arrived, the same pattern followed. The ends of the french fries were burned and so were the tips of my chicken tenderloins. It appears that Looney Bird's bakes, not fries, its food. I'll give them bonus points for that from a dietary standpoint, but someone in the kitchen needs to pay more attention to the oven.

The chicken tenderloins, which are served with an apricot dipping sauce, were pretty good. But at $8, the price was far too high, especially because the fries and the baked beans were unexceptional. High praise goes to the ribs, which were the hit of the evening.

Like other kiddie emporiums, Looney Bird's offers the kids a good time, although girls were far more enthused about the karaoke entertainment than the boys. But beware of the adult's dinner prices - especially at a place where you're shelling out lots of dollars to feed those game machines.